ORDER CHELONIA. 85 



productions of equatorial climates. On distant shores it 

 furnishes to navigators an aliment equally agreeable, abun- 

 dant, and salutiferous, and an assured remedy against the 

 ravages of scurvy. 



The flesh and broth of turtle are recommended in a num- 

 ber of morbid affections, as in consumption of the lungs, 

 inveterate syphilis, and a variety of cutaneous affections. 



The fat is often of a deep green, but it is very finely 

 flavoured. Leguat informs us, that, in the Island Rodriguez, 

 the fat of the tortoises there is so highly coloured, that peo- 

 ple at first were afraid to eat it, and that it communicates to 

 the urine the tint of emerald. 



The turtles of Batavia are not in much estimation. In 

 Cook's Voyages we learn, that those of the river Endeavour, 

 in New Holland, are very good. There is more or less a 

 musky flavour about the green turtles, according to the 

 season in which they are caught. 



It would appear that, under certain circumstances, and in 

 certain latitudes, these animals possess pernicious qualities. 

 At the time of the voyage of Commodore Anson, in 1740, 

 the Spaniards and Americans of the western coasts of Mexico, 

 near Panama, regarded their flesh as poisonous. Quaere, 

 whether the species of which we are now writing was the one 

 which they thus stigmatized ? 



Be this as it may, it is certain that in the European colo- 

 nies, in the Antilles, and at the Isle of France, they are in 

 the highest estimation. In Jamaica they are even preserved 

 in parks ; and their flesh is sold in the shops at. a less price 

 than that of beef and mutton. 



From this last island in particular is our turtle-eating 

 metropolis supplied with immense quantities of this luxurious 

 food. It would be quite superfluous to descant on the enthu- 

 siastic veneration in which turtle- soup is held by our wealthy 

 and discerning fellow citizens. 



